York Minster candles mark Holocaust Memorial Day

The Revd Canon Maggie McLean helps light six hundred candles in the shape of the Star of David

Hundreds of candles have been lit in York Minster to mark international Holocaust Memorial Day.

Six hundred candles, arranged in the shape of the Star of David, have been set out on the floor of the cathedral's Chapter House.

The candles represent the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust and victims of other genocides.

People will be invited to go to the candlestands and light a candle during a memorial event later.

Holocaust Memorial Day, held on 27 January each year, marks the day in 1945 the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated.

candles are lit in memory of more than six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazis during World War Two

A spokesperson for York Minster said the theme of the memorial event this year was Fragility of Freedom.

They said it would "reflect on how the erosion of freedom is the key precursor to persecution and genocide".

The Very Revd Dominic Barrington, Dean of York, said: "Despite recognising the signs and signals of authoritarian regimes stripping away fundamental human rights and freedoms, all too often we choose to look away, we choose not to hear.

"Contemplating such cruelty can be overwhelming but, if we don't, genocide can happen as it did in Nazi-occupied Europe, in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur."

A Minster spokesperson said the event, would include poetry, readings, reflections and prayers and music by The Ebor Singers, an associate choir of York Minster.

York Minster's Holocaust Memorial Day event will run from 18:30 GMT to 20:00 GMT.